Meeting Topic: Switching Amplifier Technology - An Introduction for Acousticians
Moderator Name: Jeffrey Whalen
Speaker Name: Eli Hughes, PhD Candidate for the Penn State Acoustics Graduate Program
Other business or activities at the meeting: Introduced the new officers for the 2009 - 2010 year and announced an upcoming meeting with a presentation from Shure Inc.
Meeting Location: 214 Applied Science Building, University Park, Pennsylvania 16802
For our first meeting of the semester, Eli Hughes, a PhD candidate in the Graduate Program in Acoustics, gave a presentation on switching amplifier technology which has been permeating many audio application areas. Due to many factors, switching technology has traditionally been tethered to the realm of DC power supply and industrial control space. However, with numerous advances in Integrated Circuits (IC) and sound quality, audio amplification is now in the scope of switching technology. This talk not only covered the principles of the technology, but also demonstrated some real hardware implementations. Eli presented the audience with an extremely compact 40 Watt audio amplifier (less than 1 cubic inch!) as well as some impressive playground equipment which will be some of the first to integrate audio with modern playground entertainment. His presentation and hardware gave a great insight as to the possibilities of this technology, and the broad scope of applications that it may be used for. This led to an extensive question and answer session covering topics such as the pros and cons of different types of amplification, Eli's work in the industry of playground equipment, and where the audio industry can take advantage of switching amplifiers. It was a great start to the semester and all those in attendance were in awe of all that this technology has to offer.
